I've got some time to kill before my lunch break, so I thought I'd share a little anecdote that held my interest for all of five seconds this morning ...

My local newspaper ran a story by a local columnist about the supposed lack of privacy in America today, which included the following paragraph :

As if all these mailings and confirmations aren't enough, all the companies I've heard from make a point of telling me that many more details about their privacy policies can be found on their Internet Web sites at www.whatever.com.

Now, I'm sure the columnist in question (who, if past articles are any indication, is very techno-phobic) wasn't actually referring to a specific web site called Whatever.Com; he just came up with the first generic web address that popped in his head, without thinking about the consequences ... those consequences being, of course, that the online version of the paper automatically converts URLs to clickable links.

So, here we have a computer-illiterate newspaper columnist, who is unwittingly sending his online readers to a website with unknown (to him) content ... Considering the "questionable" subject matter that can be found on web sites with seemingly innocent-sounding URLs, I was all set to have a good chuckle at the expense of some unsuspecting housewife stumbling upon god-knows what kind of online filth that could be found at Whatever.Com.

Okay, I know the suspense is killing you ... You wanna know what kind of sick and twisted pornographic material you get when you visit Whatever.Com?

Sadly, you're only re-directed to an online store dedicated exclusively to teddy bears ... What a letdown. Here I was, expecting this guy to be caught up in a flood of controversy and demands for his dismissal over an innocent oversight in judgement (giving me plenty of opportunity to laugh at his misfortune), and all I get are teddy bears.

Bah, I wasted precious time clicking the link, so I figured I'd have you all waste time reading about it

If the columnist had an ounce of funk in him, he'd have used goatse.cx as his example.

(Note: the three of you who don't know the joke do NOT want to type in that address.)

"You may be wondering why I have been making so many references lately to Fox News. The reason is that it is now my cable news network of choice -- because if Iím going to watch the news and be lied to, I want it to be ridiculously obvious that I am being lied to." -- Center for an Informed America, Newsletter #34

WTF? Holy crap, I was just flipping through the channels an hour or two ago and saw Kurt Loder on MTV News saying he was fine, home, and "resting comfortably". Jeez. The Man in Black, Jack Tripper, and Captain Murph.